Page 63 of Not Your Pucking Girl

“Fuck, baby, I plan to,” I murmur in her ear.

She giggles and gives me another kiss as she tightens her arms around me in a warm hug. She pulls back and looks at me with nothing but awe and pride, making me want to put that look on her face every damn day. “Here,” I say, digging into my pocket and pulling out my keys. “Let me put my shit in the SUV and you can drive it home.”

“Thanks,” she smiles, taking them from me.

I walk her out to the parking lot and throw my hockey bag in the back of the SUV. I tell her about the press interview on the way, which has her asking a million questions. I help her up into the SUV and watch as she drives away before heading back into the stadium to find Tank.

I find him leaning against the wall of the merchandise shop as Sophie helps the girls finish up. “Hey, man,” I say, getting the guy’s attention. “You ready?”

He nods at me with a wide grin. “Yeah.”

We squeeze our way through the lingering crowd and make our way back down the hallway that leads to the locker room. Instead of heading right, we go left toward the conference room. We find the door and push our way through to discover a few people sitting in front of a long table with two chairs behind it.

Once inside the room, I take a moment to quickly look around. There are two women holding notepads and a man with a camera. Coach Harris stands in the back looking as though he’s about to start shitting bricks. We take our seats and they jump straight into it.

We stay for at least twenty minutes, with both the women asking numerous questions about our season, our team, what we hope for the future, and most of all, our relationship as the Dream Team. I even get asked who I think would be a good captain for next season. I let them know that I believe Jaxon should be put up for the role, looking at Coach as I say it. He raises a questioning brow at me but gives me a slight nod, and I realize that Coach has seen the same hard work and improvement coming from Jaxon that I have.

We finish off our interview and meet with Coach right outside the door. “Fuck, that was awesome,” I say to Tank, who grins back at me.

“Yes, you both handled yourselves well. Keep it up because there will be a lot more of that in Chicago,” Coach tells us, and I momentarily wonder if it will be televised. I know my family would get a kick out of seeing me on live television. You know, apart from the actual hockey games, which they have seen millions of times.

Tank and I head out, bypassing the merchandise store to pick up Sophie, who floods us with questions about the interview.

The boys wanted to head out to a club tonight, so we drive straight past Micky’s. Tank pulls up at the club a few minutes later and takes Sophie by the hand, leading her inside. I hang out front for a moment, pulling my phone out to let Dani know how it went, when I see a missed call from Mia from earlier this afternoon and a few missed calls from Mom a bit later on. She probably wanted to congratulate me.

I give Dani a call, giving her a quick rundown of the interview and promising to give her all the lengthy, boring details in the morning over breakfast. She wishes me a good night and I end the call, wishing I could be with her. But it’s important to be here with the boys.

Pressing a few buttons on the screen, I pull up Mia’s number and hit call. The phone rings out, and I leave her a message telling her to call me back when she can and remind her that she’s a brat. Next up, I dial Mom.

She answers almost immediately, which isn’t surprising because she hates making people wait. “Hello,” she says, her voice hardly recognizable.

“Mom, hey. Sorry, I missed your calls. I was busy on the ice getting my team to Chicago,” I tell her, the pride swelling through my chest.

“Oh, honey,” she whimpers with a cry, and I realize this isn’t a cry of happiness. It’s sorrowful and heartbreaking. She lets out a heavy sob that has me wondering what the fuck is going on.

“Mom?” I question, my brows furrowed as concern grips me, refusing to let go. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” she sobs, barely getting the words out. “I don’t know how to tell you this. It’s Mia.”

My concern quickly morphs into terror over what could have the strongest woman I know turning into a sobbing mess. “What is it, Mom?” I rush out as my stomach sinks with unease. “What’s wrong with Mia? What happened?”

“There was an accident,” she cries as she struggles to breathe, completely distraught. “She’s gone, Miller. My baby is gone.”

I don’t hear what she says next as I fall to my knees in the middle of the walkway, my heart sinking deeper than my despair. How could she be gone? My baby sister? Little Mia.

Dead.

Chapter 23

Danielle

I’mstartledawakebya loud ringing that has me nearly falling out of bed. Groaning, I roll over and reach for Miller, but when I realize he isn’t home yet, I sit up a little to see the alarm clock on his bedside table.

Crap. It’s two in the morning.

Where the hell is he?

As the ringing continues, I reach for my phone to silence it, but when I see Tank’s name flashing on the caller ID, an odd feeling settles in my stomach. Hitting accept on his call, I bring the phone up to my ear. “Hello?” I croak through my sleepy haze.

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